Anti-Muslim Bias Seen in Charges Against Man Linked to Al Qaeda

Tarik Shah, one of two men charged last weekend with conspiring to aid Al Qaeda, was ordered held without bond yesterday in Manhattan federal court, as one of his lawyers said the government had singled him out for being a Muslim.

The other defendant, Dr. Rafiq Sabir, had not yet hired a lawyer when he appeared briefly yesterday in a court in Fort Pierce, Fla..

Mr. Shah, a jazz musician, and Dr. Sabir, a physician, have not entered pleas in the case. The two men, lifelong friends, stand accused of trying to provide support to Al Qaeda, and vowing to use their knowledge in martial arts and medicine to help international terrorism.

After the arraignment, Anthony Ricco, one of Mr. Shah's two lawyers, said the arrest was typical of the government's efforts to cast suspicion on Muslims in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"He wouldn't be here if he wasn't a Muslim," Mr. Ricco told reporters outside the courthouse.

"I'd characterize it as desperate prosecution on the part of the government," he said. "If you look at the way in which our nation has been attacked, the response has been to arrest people like Tarik Shah, who but for a confidential informant and government involvement wouldn't be here; he'd be playing the bass at a club somewhere."

The men were arrested early Saturday in a sting operation conducted by the F.B.I. Mr. Shah, 42, was picked up in his Bronx apartment, and Dr. Sabir, 50, at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. Dr. Sabir is likely to be sent to New York for prosecution, after his next hearing, on Monday.

Prosecutors said the two men were recorded by a government informer swearing a formal loyalty oath to Al Qaeda. They were charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda.

"Shah committed himself to the path of holy war, to the oath of secrecy, and to abide by the directives of Al Qaeda," according to the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors. "Shah indicated that he understood the oath, and agreed that he would obey the guardians of the oath, namely, Sheikh Osama bin Laden." Dr. Sabir pledged the same oath, the complaint said.

Among the secretly recorded conversations, the complaint said, were ones in which Mr. Shah said that he would like to learn about "chemical stuff" and "explosives and firearms," and told an undercover F.B.I. agent posing as a recruiter for Al Qaeda that he had trained Muslim fighters. And at a meeting in April 2004, the complaint said, he smiled at a girl standing nearby and told the undercover agent, "I could be joking and smiling and then cutting their throats in the next second."

The contention of Mr. Shah's lawyers that Muslims have been unfairly caught up in the government's hunt for terrorists has been echoed in recent days by many Muslims, who expressed a mixture of sadness and skepticism about the case, and described a general malaise in their community.

The case comes on the heels of another that reverberated through mosques and Muslim neighborhoods in New York: the arrest in March of two teenage Muslim girls in New York City on suspicion that they planned to become suicide bombers. The girls were detained on immigration charges after F.B.I. agents searched one of the girl's rooms and seized essays she had written, including one on suicide, according to her family.

Law enforcement authorities have declined to comment on that case, but a few weeks ago, the girls were quietly released. One of the girls returned with her family to her home country, Bangladesh, and the other is back in school in East Harlem.

"In everything we do now we have to be cautious." said Luqman Ellahi, 22, an engineering student who lives on Long Island.

The caution often deters honest debate. Nouman Khan, 27, a professor of Arabic at Nassau Community College, said that he feels "a pressure to not express political opinions, whether it's the war on Iraq or the American Patriot Act."

Mr. Shah, described as a world-renowned jazz musician by his lawyers, entered the paneled courtroom with his hands manacled, and waved to a group of friends and family -- fellow musicians, men wearing kufis, and his wife, Zakkiyya Shah, a slight woman in a navy head covering with a floral motif.

"As-salaamu alaikum," he said as he was led to the defense table, offering the Arabic greeting, "peace be with you." Many in the room responded with the same phrase.

Mr. Shah's lawyers consented to his detention, and reserved the right to seek bail at a later date. As they conferred with the judge, Mrs. Shah, 38, listened intently.

Dr. Sabir, who converted to Islam after being raised a Roman Catholic, put himself through college and Columbia University's medical school with dreams of starting a private clinic in Harlem, said a man who attended Columbia with Dr. Sabir and was close friends with him, but declined to give his name.

He said Dr. Sabir studied Arabic with the hope of reading the Koran in its original language. While not militant in his political views, Dr. Sabir, like other black intellectuals of his generation, did feel disenfranchised by the American political system, the man said.

In Hempstead, N.Y., yesterday, Shayna Parchment -- the daughter of Dr. Sabir's companion, Arleen Morgan -- described in detail the arrest of Dr. Sabir, which she witnessed in Boca Raton when federal agents knocked loudly on his door at 6 a.m. Saturday.

"My mother was trying to stop it," said Miss Parchment, 15. "She said she didn't think he would do something like that. She was very scared and worried. You could see it in her face."

Miss Parchment said the agents also took a laptop computer from Dr. Sabir's home.

Correction: June 6, 2005, Monday Because of an editing error, an article on Wednesday about court appearances for Tarik Shah and Dr. Rafiq Sabir, lifelong friends charged with conspiring to aid Al Qaeda, misstated the date for Dr. Sabir's next hearing in some copies. It is today, not Wednesday.